


Alpha To-Do Lists

by safeandwarm



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F, F/M, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-08
Updated: 2012-07-29
Packaged: 2017-11-09 11:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/safeandwarm/pseuds/safeandwarm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Laura Hale is a badass and I mess with canon. Also, for the sake of this story, any born werewolf can give the bite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

With blood still drying on her hands and the January wind knotting her long brown hair, Laura started making a mental list of things she needed to do. First off, call her brother and get him caught up on the whole “Peter Thing,” because calling it the “Peter Thing” was much simpler and less traumatizing than “Hey, remember comatose Uncle Peter, who is our last surviving relative, well, yeah, he hasn’t been comatose for a while. Oh, and he tried to kill me tonight, so I had to kill him first.”

Secondly, she needed to return to the frighteningly less than one star motel she was staying at and wash off all the blood and change out of her torn, dirty clothes. Then she needed to go to the hospital before the girl woke up alone and transformed.

It would be well within her right to kill Peter’s progeny, but she was just a girl, the same age Laura had been when the fire had killed her family.

They’d need to find somewhere to stay. Or rebuild the house. She’d done estimates with contractors a few times, but Derek had always gotten moody when he’d found out, locked himself in his room and would only come out when Laura bribed him with pork chops and Mom’s apple pie. So, maybe Derek wasn’t ready, but the house had been home to their pack for generations, and Peter had inadvertently given them a pack again. They’d need somewhere isolated if they were going to be training a new pup, especially when the full moon was less than a week away.

She dialed her brother’s number and waited impatiently for him to answer. “Derek, get on the first plane out here.”

“Classes start on Monday. What is so important that you need me there?”

“Peter’s dead,” she replied. The comment was met by silence. “And he bit a girl. Actually, he mauled her. She’s in the hospital, and the official report is an animal attack, but I could smell Peter on her. She’s going to make a miraculous recovery tonight, and the full moon is next week. If she’s the only one he bit, I can deal with her by myself, but if he bit anyone else, I’m going to need help. Either way, I have to move back. This girl, she’s seventeen, a junior. She’s here another year and a half at least.”

She could hear shuffling and typing from Derek’s end before he said. “There’s a flight out of Newark in three hours. I’ll be on it. Where are you staying?”

Laura brushed her hair behind her ears. “Highcourt Inn. Call me when you land.” She hung up and stared down at the mangled body of her uncle, the same uncle who read her Where the Wild Things Are every night for a year because Laura had been obsessed with the book, the same uncle who took her and Derek out for ice cream when Michael had alpha training—she always got rocky road; Derek got chocolate; Peter got strawberry. Laura wiped away the few tears that had fallen.

She needed to bury Peter under wolfsbane. Just another thing to add to the list.


	2. Chapter 2

List of things to tell the pretty redhead pup when she finally returns to consciousness, in order of importance (rough draft): 

1\. Hi, I’m Laura. I’m a werewolf. Please don’t scream and alert the whole hospital that I’m in the room of an underage teenage girl. I have important things to tell you. 

2\. You were bit by a werewolf. 

3\. It totally wasn’t me. 

4\. Again, don’t scream, but you’re a werewolf too. 

5\. Stop screaming. 

**

Michael was supposed to be the alpha; he was four years older than Laura and had returned home from college for the harvest moon with pups still brewing in his pregnant wife. They were all killed in the fire. 

The fire changed everything. Which, yeah, obviously, the fire that kills most of your extended family will do that, but the fire changed Laura’s wolf. It gave her powers she was never meant to have, and for the first few years after, it had been trial-and-error. Derek had submitted more out of familiarity than out of an actual alpha-pack bond.

And while six years as alpha had given her time to grow into her powers and responsibilities, sometimes it still felt like the blind leading the blind. Not that she’d tell Derek that. This was her responsibility to shoulder. He may be her second and the only person in the world she trusted, but that didn’t mean she wanted to weigh him down any more, not when Derek constantly seemed to be buried under the enormity of life without their family.

All of that to say that Laura sat in a hard plastic chair beside the hospital bed of an unconscious girl she had never met, who would soon become part of her pack. Laura was born among wolves. Most of the wolves she knew were born that way. She had next to no experience with bitten wolves, but this girl was hers to protect now, hers to train.

The sound of the girl’s breathing changing caused Laura to set up alert in her chair. It took several minutes before the girl woke up, and at least a minute more before she strained to open her eyes.

Lydia Martin, aka the pretty redhead girl, surprised Laura by responding to the whole “I’m a werewolf and I killed the wolf who bit you and turned you and now you’re part of my pack” thing by saying, “prove it,” instead of screaming or calling her a crazy person or emitting blind panic. 

She surprised Laura even more by not flinching away when Laura’s muted green irises bled alpha red.

“Okay.” Lydia took a breath. “Okay, so that coupled with the fact that I can hear eight different heart monitors beeping, excluding my own, probably means that you’re telling the truth. The one who bit me…” She trailed off, and worry began pouring off her in waves. Laura’s wolf didn’t like seeing Lydia in distress and it whined for Laura to do something.

“He’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore.” 

Laura took Lydia’s hand in hers and squeezed it gently; Lydia gave her a small, grateful smile. “What happens now?”

The question made Laura want to burrow under the covers in her bed like Derek did during rainy days or snowy days. Or Wednesdays. Her to-do list was a country mile long and constantly expanding. “The bite’s already healing. They’ll release you tomorrow. When they do, come find me at the Hale House. Do you know where that is?”

“Everybody does.” A few seconds later, Lydia’s eyes flickered with recognition. “You’re Laura Hale. I remember you.”

“I am.”

It really shouldn’t have surprised Laura that Lydia recognized her—while Beacon Hills wasn’t exactly a shining metropolis, it wasn’t Mayberry either—but it did. She had been seventeen when she left town. That meant Lydia couldn’t have been more than eleven. What eleven-year-old remembered a random older teenager?

“And you’re a werewolf.”

“So are you.” The distant sound of Lydia’s parents bickering moved steadily closer, and Laura knew that was her cue. 

She stood and kissed Lydia’s temple. “See you soon, little wolf.” 

Because an alpha’s work is never done, after she left the hospital via the window in Lydia’s private suite, Laura got into her rental car—a sensible Honda as opposed to the Camaro that she desperately wanted but didn’t get because it had seemed like a pointless indulgence—and made the hour drive to the airport in forty-five minutes. 

She met Derek at baggage claim even though he only brought his carry-on, and she gave him a hug. His scent filled her senses. Suddenly, Laura was steadied; Derek smelled like pack, like home, like safety. When Laura was younger, she used to crave that scent after being at school all day. School had reeked of body odor and detergent and a million different beauty products—and that was ignoring all the pheromones that cropped up when she had been in middle school and then doubled during high school. 

The scent of pack had been so pervasive that Laura could smell it from the turn-off to the long driveway leading up to the Hale House. The scent had long-since faded from the woods, from the house. Derek was the only remaining source of the pack scent, and sometimes Laura wondered if that’s why she coddled him so much, if she did it out of a selfish desire to preserve that scent.

Derek, these days, was stagnant. He went to classes and worked a part-time job in the campus book store, but he didn’t have any close friends, hadn’t had any since the fire. He hadn’t been on a date since then; she’d never scented anything from him that wasn’t sadness or loneliness or self-loathing.

That’s not to say that Laura was a ray of sunshine and flowers and happiness, but she had been trying to move on in New York, had even started casually dating this pretty barista, who was the only one who could make Laura’s caramel white chocolate mocha to perfection. Not that caffeine affected her in small doses. Laura just liked the taste. 

“Have you met her?” Derek asked when they were loaded back up in the Honda headed back toward Beacon Hills.

Laura nodded, thinking back to their new packmate. “Lydia Martin. Do you remember her?” Derek shook his head. “She remembered me.”

“And Peter?”

His voice was flat, but Laura could feel anxiety radiating off of him. “Buried in the forest.”

“The house?”

She sighed and tried to put on her alpha voice, but she felt like a fraud. “It’s time, Derek. I know how you feel. Trust me, I know, but it is time to rebuild. I want my pack to live and train in the same place where Mom’s pack was, where Grandpa’s was. I need you to stand with me as my second.”

Derek bowed his head like he was praying, and said, “Yes, alpha.”

The words shocked her system. Derek had never called her ‘alpha.’ It was still customary in some of the more traditional packs, but it was a rule never enforced by their mom. “If this is too much for you, I want you to say it. You are my brother first and my beta second.”

“I’m fine, Laura. Don’t worry about me.”

Easier said than done. 

These days all she did was worry.

**

Derek was still asleep at the motel when Laura drove out to the house to meet with the contractors. She had three different companies coming to put a bid in. The first two took one look at Laura, and both jacked the price up. She could hear the way their hearts raced with excitement. She knew that when they looked at her all they saw was a pretty girl with several huge life insurance policies.

Being able to tell when someone was lying to her face made Laura’s life both infinitely easier and infinitely more complicated. When talking to contractors, it was way easier. Dating, though, was a nightmare. 

Laura sat on the front porch waiting for the last contractor to arrive. A vehicle rumbled in the distance, and Laura could hear it approaching. The man exiting the SUV didn’t shock her, but his arrogance did. 

“Chris,” she said as she stood up to face him. Argents. Hunters. Fuck. That was the last thing Laura needed right now. 

“Laura. I heard that you were back, and then I heard that you were rebuilding the house. Do you plan on staying permanently?”

She resisted the urge to laugh in his face. “What I plan to do has nothing to do with you, Chris. I’m not a child anymore. You won’t scare me so easily.”

He smiled that disarming smile, like Laura was overreacting, like his family hadn’t murdered hers, like he had any right to be on her land in her face demanding answers. The wolf in her wanted to paint what remained of her family home with his blood. Instead, she smiled back. 

“I was merely curious. I’d heard rumors of animal attacks and came to investigate.”

Right. Sure. 

“I already eliminated the threat.”

“And what of the Martin girl?”

Laura felt her irises bleed red and took one steadying breath before answering. “She is mine.”

Amusement radiated from Argent, and it pissed Laura off that she had lost control in front of him. She was young, yes, but she wasn’t weak and she didn’t let her wolf slip out without a justifiable reason. Not in front of hunters. 

“If she harms a human—”

Laura cut him off. “I’m well aware of your code. I’m also aware that not all hunters keep to it, including your own family.”

Chris’s face hardened, his features locking down tight, before he smiled at her again, but it didn’t matter. Laura could smell his anger. “Vicious lies.”

“The sad thing is that you really believe that. Kate murdered my family, and if I see her again, I’ll rip her throat out.”

“If that’s true, you must have some evidence. Prove it to me that she was involved.”

The distant sound of gravel beneath tires tore Laura from her glaring. It was the third contractor. Chris smiled one last time and put his hands up as if he meant no harm before crawling into his SUV and driving away. Laura would prove it. She would prove Kate killed her family. 

And then she’d kill Kate.

But first she had to meet with the contractor. And then she had to begin Lydia’s training. And then she needed to find a job and get a permanent vehicle.

The list went on and on.


	3. Chapter 3

Training that first day mostly consisted of provoking Lydia to shift and then allowing her to attack, while Laura repeatedly deflected her blows and threw her away when she got too close. The second day she introduced Lydia to Derek, and they all went running together. Lydia stuck close to Laura’s side. It was easy to see that she was wary of Derek, even if she pretended otherwise, flipping her hair and looking bored when he spoke. Because Lydia still hadn’t formally submitted, she was technically an omega, and being nervous around a much more powerful beta made sense.

What didn’t make sense was how that same omega showed absolutely no fear of Laura. Not when they were fighting. Not when Laura shifted into her full wolf form. Nothing.

Derek’s eyes flashed blue and Lydia got skittish. Laura roared, and, yes, Lydia responded, but it wasn’t with the same level of fear, and that confused Laura.

Not for the first time, she wished he had another alpha to talk to, one who wouldn’t take her naiveté and lack of knowledge as a weakness to exploit.

Laura and Derek sat on the front porch of the house—construction didn’t start until after the full moon. “What do you think of her?”

Derek shrugged minutely. “She’s fine. She follows your lead. She’ll be a good wolf when she gains full control.”

“And how are you doing?”

“I’m fine. I’ll be better when we are out of hotels and motels. All of the scents are irritating my senses.”

Laura couldn’t argue with him. The hotel did the same to her. Too many people in and out of the rooms, streaking corners and edges with their scent and skin. And Derek did seem fine, no different than in New York. Laura had been worried that returning to Beacon Hills would be the thing to finally break her brother, but so far that wasn’t the case.

“The house will only take a few months at most. I promised them a bonus if they could get it within a month, but I doubt they’ll get it put up that quickly, not with how big the house is.”

“Enough room for a pack.”

That’s right. That was exactly right. They were a small pack, but they were hers. And this land and this house had been in her family for generations. Rebuilding was more than a sign that they were moving on; it was an homage, a duty. Laura was a wolf from the Hale pack; they could trace their ancestors back three hundred years, or they could before the fire stole their records.

It stole all of their family history, all of their journals and books.

Just another thing Kate Argent had taken from her.

**

After their third training practice, Laura steered Lydia into the house and onto the one couch that had survived the fire with only smoke damage. Lydia had been distracted all through training; she had been sloppy and unfocused, which was the complete opposite of how Laura had seen the girl thus far.

Laura sat down beside her. Whether it was Lydia’s need for comfort or Laura’s instinct to cover the new wolf in her scent, she put her arm around Lydia and pulled her in. “Want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

It’s not that Laura was touch-starved. She wasn’t. She and Derek cuddled often enough and in such a way that Laura’s friends had commented on its weirdness. And, yeah, it’s not exactly normal for a twenty-two year old man to sit in his older sister’s lap or for siblings to share a bed occasionally, but it was a wolf thing, a scent thing, a touch thing.

So, Laura wasn’t starved for skin-on-skin contact, but that didn’t stop Laura’s wolf for quieting and becoming docile when Lydia rested her head on Laura’s shoulder. It just meant her wolf was happy to be near a pack mate, right? Right?

The fact that Laura wasn’t sure worried her.

She needed to research this. Add it to the list. Maybe she could hit up the Beacon Hills Library. Her family had been major donors. Maybe her ancestors had had the foresight to put some moderately accurate books on werewolf lore in their mythology or folklore sections.

Lydia’s breath was warm against her neck, but the steady bursts of air were interrupted when she finally spoke. “I’ve been having dreams.”

“Dreams or nightmares?” Laura remembered that sometimes, if clawed deep enough, werewolves could pass memories or tie themselves to a human. And if Laura was getting Peter’s memories, who knew what the girl was being forced to witness.

“Both,” Lydia said quietly. “I saw myself get attacked. I saw it through his eyes.” Without thinking about it, Laura pulled the girl in closer. “You didn’t tell me that he was your uncle.”

And the words sound like betrayal on her tongue.

It’s not that Laura was hiding it on purpose. She hadn’t said anything about the wolf that bit Lydia, about Peter, except that he was dead and couldn’t hurt her. What else was she supposed to say? _The man who attacked you used to change my diapers. He made me a rainbow cake when I dated my first girlfriend. He was my favorite uncle, and I hate myself for killing him. I hate even more that if I hadn’t been the one to kill him that the hunters would have done far worse. I killed him so that they couldn’t take away another family member from me._

“How’d you figure that out?”

“I’m brilliant,” she replied with a shrug. “Actually, I had a dream about a boy with messy hair and long legs and a little girl with pigtails, who ran up to me and said, ‘Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter, Lucy got lost in the woods and I can’t find her scent.’ You had to have been eight.”

“Nine, actually,” Laura corrected. She remembered how scared she had been when they lost Lucy.  Laura had been the oldest one out in the woods. She was supposed to watch the other kids, but Lucy had hidden and no matter how much Laura tried, she could pick up a scent trail on her. “Mom wanted to ground me, but Uncle Peter convinced her to reduce my sentence. I had to train though. Mom had me tracking bunnies all over the forest.”

Mom had been tough, but fair. She was an alpha, and her children were expected to be the best behaved, the best trained, the best hunters and fighters. Laura absently wondered if that was similar to the pressure that the children of mega-church pastors felt. At least Laura’s antics had never been used in a sermon.

Though there had been one particularly awkward pack meeting when she had been used as an example of how not to behave when your girlfriend broke up with you and started dating the captain of the lacrosse team. Apparently clawing her car was unacceptable behavior, who knew?

“You’re not going to make me track bunnies are you?” She looked disgusted by the thought, and Laura held back a smile.

“What about deer then?” Lydia shook her head. “Skunks? Cougars? Mountain lions?”

“A cougar is a mountain lion.”

The smile Laura had been trying to contain broke free. “So it is.”

Lydia tilted her head up, her forehead crinkled in confusion, her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Nothing,” Laura replied. “Do you need a ride home, little wolf?”

Lydia didn’t look like she wanted to give up on her analysis quite so easily, but she finally relented by nodding. “I could use a shower. I smell awful.”

“You smell like pack,” Laura corrected. It was a good scent on Lydia. It was a good scent in general. A lack of abundance of pack had been seriously lacking in Laura’s life. “I like it.”

“You would. O alpha my alpha.”

Laura stuck her tongue out and Lydia did the same. “Come on, little wolf. Tomorrow it’s back to school with you.” Lydia sighed, but got up from the couch and started walking outside. “You have my number in case anything happens?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Derek’s going to be watching to school too. Just in case.”

Lydia grimaced, sliding into the car and slamming her door. She didn’t say anything until Laura was seated in the driver’s seat. “ _Just in case_. Just in case I go crazy and try to kill my classmates in a fit of werewolf rage.”

Laura patted the girl’s hand, trying to reassure her. “You’ve done really well so far in training, but anything could set off a new wolf. An ex. A bitchy comment. A bad grade. I don’t know. I’d rather have back-up there and ready if you need it. I won’t let you do something you regret.”

“You’ve been letting me go home. How did you know something there wouldn’t set me off? Have you met my mother?”

“I’ve been watching your house.”

Lydia groaned. “Does this make me Bella Swan? Are you my Edward?”

Laura laughed, remembering how she had forced Derek to sit through the first three movies, and how he had whined the entire time. “I think, if this was Twilight, Derek would be Edward. But, I always thought Bella and Alice should get together.”

She might have imagined it, but, to Laura, it looked like Lydia had blushed. “How inaccurate are those books?”

“Very.”

“You’ll have to add history of lycanthropy to my training.”

“Will do.” Laura parked her car at the curb at Lydia’s house and kissed the top of Lydia’s head. “Have a good day at school tomorrow. And call if you need anything.”

“Yes, alpha.” The girl’s lips were curved in a smile. And the layer of make-up she usually wore had been sweated off completely, leaving her face bare, but bright with a post-workout flush. She was breath-taking.

It wasn’t until well after Lydia had disappeared into the house that Laura realized that her wolf was whining, unhappy with Lydia’s departure. And, fuck, that wasn’t good. She was a vulnerable seventeen year old girl and Laura was her alpha.

It didn’t mean anything, she convinced herself. A mixture of a pretty face and an all-but-formal pack bond. It didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t mean anything.

Laura pushed it out of her mind. She had more important things to worry about right now than whether or not she had a crush on Lydia, and research was at the top of that list.

**

Werewolf.

The scent was faint and unfamiliar, but it was there, and Laura smelled it the second she walked into the library. The wolf couldn’t still be there, but she still followed the scent cautiously, curiously, getting even more curious when Laura realized where the scent led.

And there, in the middle of the folklore section, sitting alone at a table, was a teenager with short buzzed hair. Human, but the smell of werewolf clung to his clothes. Laura crept up behind him and snuck a peek over his shoulder. “Werewolves, huh?”

The boy flinched in his seat, limbs flailing everywhere. Somehow he managed to knock two books off the table with such force that they only skidded to a stop when they reached a bookshelf. He turned around, meeting Laura’s eyes with his own wide, brown eyes. “That was rude.”

“My apologies,” Laura said with a smile as she walked over to retrieve the books. When she brought them back, she stared at the boy. He had to have been around Lydia’s age, but he looked so familiar. Then it clicked. He was the sheriff’s son. Stilinski. Stiles. A wave of memories swept over her. “You never answered my question.”

“What was your question again? I was too distracted with trying to not have a heart attack when you crept up like a sneaky ninja to pay attention.”

“Werewolves.”

He made a face. “That’s not a question.”

Laura shrugged. Semantics. He knew what she meant. “You’re reading about werewolves. Do you think they’re real?”

“Wouldn’t know. I’ve never met one.”

Lie.

The boy’s heart sped up over the words, and Laura couldn’t contain her grin. Not only did Stiles hang around a werewolf, but he knew that he was hanging out with a werewolf. “I think we both know that’s not true.”

Stiles looked her in the eyes, panic pouring off of him, but his voice remained steady as he spoke. “I don’t know that that’s something that we know. I don’t know any werewolves, nice, crazy lady, so if you could leave me alone that would be great. I really don’t want to yell like a preteen girl at a Justin Bieber concert, but I will if you don’t back away.”

“I don’t mean you any harm.” He snorts. “No. Really. Was your friend attacked recently? Maybe he was bitten and the bite healed and now he’s different.”

The panic that surrounded Stiles faded until curiosity was the dominant scent. “Were you the one who bit him?”

Laura shook her head. “No, but I killed the one who did. He bit someone else too. I’m training her. Tell your friend that he’s welcome to join us too. We meet in the clearing behind the Hale House.”

“Laura,” Stiles said suddenly. The tension in his shoulders slipped away. “You’re Laura. You used to read to me on Saturday mornings when my mom brought me to the library. You were always here with your whole family, but it took you about half of the time it took them to pick out books, so you would read to me while you waited.”

“I remember.”

And she did. Saturday mornings at the library were a Hale family tradition, even in high school. Laura had been going through the Harry Potter series when she met Stiles. He was young and rambunctious and so curious. He would sit down beside Laura and listen as she read to him from whatever book he had picked out, and then the five others he had selected after that. Eventually, she started reading the first Harry Potter book to him, and his eyes would get as big as bowling balls when she read about Gringotts and Diagon Alley.

“You’re the one who got me into fantasy and the supernatural, and now you’re telling me that,” at this part his voice got quieter, “you’re a werewolf.”

Laura let her irises turn red and was pleased with the gasp from Stiles. “I’m the alpha.”

“Oh my god. That is awesome. Are any of these books true?” He waved his hand at the five set out on the table.

“I’m not sure. Bring them with you this afternoon and I’ll check them out. Besides, Lydia wants werewolf lessons.”

Stiles flailed again. “Lydia Martin is a werewolf? That is strangely fitting”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged and frowned. “She always looked like she was about five seconds away from stabling someone with a stiletto. Now she has fangs and claws.”

Her phone chirped loudly in the otherwise quiet library. Speak of the devil and all that jazz. Of course it was Lydia calling. Laura didn’t even get a chance to greet her before Lydia said, “Scott McCall is a werewolf. I saw his eyes at lacrosse practice.”

Laura put the phone to her chest, knowing that it probably wouldn’t do much to muffle anything. “Yo, Stiles.” He made a noise of curiosity. “Is your friend Scott McCall?”

“Yeah, why?”

She sighed. “We need to get to the school.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am overwhelmed by the response this fic has gotten. Everyone has been so supportive and nice.

Laura had never considered her wolf to be a separate entity. She was the wolf; the wolf was her. It was as intrinsic to her as her brain or her body or any other vital organ. Yes, the wolf part of her came with claws and sharp teeth—her full alpha form even came with fur—but she wasn’t any less dangerous when she was just Laura, just a twenty-something year old wearing jeans and a sweater, her brown hair flowing in loose waves down her back. Her strength didn’t disappear like her claws. Neither did her agility or tactical planning. She was alpha all the time.

All of this meant that a baby omega who had lost control during lacrosse practice was easily contained. It took nothing more than flashing her eyes and telling him firmly to stand down, to stop fighting Derek’s hold on him. Derek had grabbed Scott off the field and into the locker room when Scott had lost control of his wolf.

“That’s never going to get old,” Stiles said from beside her.

Scott slumped in Derek’s arms, lowering his head in submission. “Derek, take Lydia to the clearing. Scott and Stiles, you’re with me.”

“I drove my jeep today,” Stiles said, and Laura nodded.

“Fine. Follow us there.”

Scott, even while still submissive, still managed to look like a petulant toddler. “I want to ride with Stiles.”

“Not an option.”

Whining irritated her senses before Scott even spoke. “But why? You’re not my mom. You’re not my alpha. Why should I listen to you?”

Laura resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose, but a migraine was definitely coming on. She knew the kid hadn’t been a wolf long. Still, this was common sense. “You just shifted into your wolf form in front of twenty people because you were upset. I am not leaving you alone in a confined space with a human until you’ve learned to control your shifts.”

“I’m going to have to agree with the werewolf on this one, buddy,” Stiles said.

“You’re taking her side? You don’t even know her. She could be evil.”

Stiles shook his head and gestured at her. “Dude, it’s Laura. Eyebrows over here looks a million times more evil than she does.” Laura couldn’t contain the laughter that bubbled out of her; Derek glared, which did nothing to help his whole super-villain persona. How many times did she have to tell him to add some color to his wardrobe? Black and gray were fine on occasion, but they did nothing but wash out his complexion. Stiles turned to Derek who had started growling when Laura was unable to contain her laughter. “Come on, dude. We’re in semi-public. Don’t be such a sour wolf.”

And Laura lost it. She bent over like the hysterical laughter that burst from her was physically weighing her down. Even funnier was the look of disbelief on Derek’s face. He was quiet, the growls shocked out of him.

Laura knows Derek, knows him better than any person on the planet, herself included—Laura was all for introspection when needed but she was also realistic enough to know that she was unrealistic about herself. If Laura was forced to list her top three weaknesses—which she’d had to do once at a job interview at IKEA—she’d say that she was too awesome, too badass, and too tall. She didn’t get the job.

But the story had made Derek laugh, so Laura counted it as a win.

Derek, though, Laura knew Derek. And she’d never known Derek to back down in the face of someone who was weaker than him. Hell, Derek wouldn’t stand down that time they encountered a feral alpha while they were hiking at Lake George. So what was it about Stiles that made her brother pause?

When Laura finally got her laughter under control—though her wolf was still huffing in amusement—she got the kiddies loaded up and headed to the house for practice. She was practically a soccer mom these days. Maybe she should invest in a minivan instead of the Camaro that she and Derek had both been eyeing. Or maybe an SUV; that was much more suburban mom on the way to gym and then to pick up Junior from preschool.

When they were in the clearing behind the house, Derek distracting the new pups, Laura sat down with Stiles and looked over a few of the books. The first one was new-ish and also full of bullshit. Stephanie Meyer wrote a more accurate history of werewolves than this douche bag, and Laura told Stiles as much. Stiles’s barking laughter distracted Derek enough that Lydia actually managed to land a blow to his chest.

He fell on his ass.

Derek glared over at them when he righted himself.

“I don’t think he likes me very much,” Stiles said when her idiot brother went back training her pups.

“Don’t worry about Grumpy. He’s just jealous because I like you better.” Laura intentionally said that last part louder, even though Derek would have heard her if she whispered. She went back to reading, and the second book was much better. It actually looked promising. Stiles, however, didn’t look too impressed with his book. “What’s up?”

“Latin. I’m gonna need to translate it before I can figure out if any of it is true.”

From across the clearing, Lydia’s voice rang out strong and sure. Laura looked up to see the girl deflecting Scott. “Give it to me.”

“Pardon?”

Lydia pounced, knocking Scott on his ass, before sitting on his chest. “I can translate it. “

Stiles nodded, a small smile on his face. “Maybe you can also tutor Scott in Pre-Calc. He can’t get handle on quadratic functions.”

“Fine,” Lydia said, pinning Scot again when he tried to knock her off. She didn’t get up until he stopped struggling. Then she climbed off his chest and held out a hand, which he took, because Scott couldn’t smell the mischief that Lydia was putting off. Derek took a few steps back, as Lydia flipped Scott over completely and dropped him to the ground.

Again.

Stiles made a whining noise next to her, and Laura looked at him curiously. “I’m torn between being turned on and terrified. Both, probably. A little of both. Maybe scary and hot is my type.”

“Am I scary and hot?”

“You’re not scary. You’re Laura. You used to try and do a British accent when you did voices for Harry Potter, and, okay, yeah, the voices freaked me out a little, but it wasn’t scary. And maybe the whole alpha werewolf thing is supposed to scare me, but it doesn’t. Or it hasn’t clicked yet.”

Laura feigned offense. “I’m totally scary. I can be very frightening.”

“She really can be,” Derek said as he and the pups walked toward them. “Just wait until she’s mad that you ate the last of her s’more Pop Tarts.” Derek shuddered, like the memory alone was so terrifying. But Laura remembered the time he was talking about. And she hadn’t even yelled. That much. And she only lost control of the wolf because she was stressed. The Pop Tarts were just the final straw.

She stuck her tongue out. “They’re my favorite.”

Stiles handed the Latin book to Lydia and climbed to his feet, so Laura did the same. She stood to her full height and towered over the girl. The boys were all taller than her, but only barely. The way that Scott slouched and refused to meet her eyes made him look even smaller. “Lydia is taking me as her alpha on the night of the full moon. You don’t have to make me your alpha yet, but you’ll come with us on the full moon.”

“But Allison and I are going to Jackson’s party tomorrow night.”

Stiles face-palmed and shook his head in disbelief. “Oh my god. Dude, I get it, but you might hurt her.”

“I wouldn’t,” Scott replied indignantly.

“You tried to kill me. And I’ve been your best friend since kindergarten. She’s just a girl you met last week. They are willing to take care of you even though you aren’t part of their pack. They can train you and protect you and keep you from hurting anyone—your mom and Allison included.”

Scott looked like he wanted to keep arguing. Laura wondered if the kid was always like this or if it just the full moon messing with his temperament. For all Laura knew, Scott could be a sweet kid who rescued kittens from trees and helped the elderly cross the streets. Right now, though, he wasn’t making smart decisions.

“I’m going to make this easy on you,” Laura said to the little omega using her alpha voice. She didn’t get to use her alpha voice nearly enough, in her opinion. “If you try to go to that party, I will drag you out by the scruff of your neck. You can either run with us willingly, or I will chain you up so that you can’t hurt anyone.”

“You’re going to force me to join your pack?” Scott asked.

Laura didn’t flinch, didn’t look away from where Scott’s eyes were edging gold. “I could. I could make you submit, but I won’t. After the full moon, you can go back to being an omega, and you can deal with the consequences of your actions—hurting your friends and family, hunters, other omegas. Or you can join my pack. I can train you and protect you. But you get neither of those if you don’t submit.”

It was a deep, thick line that Laura was drawing in the sand, and, honestly, she wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t cross it, especially if Scott tried to harm a human, but Laura was going to protect her pack.

And a careless, self-centered wolf could get an entire pack killed.

“We’ll be here tomorrow night. Right, Scott?” Stiles said, his heart racing nervously.

“Fine,” Scott growled at the same time that Derek said, “You aren’t coming tomorrow.”

Laura couldn’t get a read on Stiles’ emotions; they were fluctuating so quickly that her senses couldn’t keep up. It was like when she had first started learning to control her senses and how overwhelming the world seemed—too bright, too loud, too rank. Stiles felt too much.

“It isn’t safe,” Derek added with a little less force and growl.

She could see that Stiles was gearing up for a huge argument, so Laura cut him off before he could begin. “It’s going to take Derek and me both to keep track of two newly-formed wolves. It would be dangerous to not only yourself, but also to us if you were there.” Stiles looked dejected, and fuck whatever instinct that made Laura want her pack happy. “I’m not saying never. This time, though, you will stay at home where it is safe. Plus, I need you to get summaries on these books so that I can start werewolf lessons.”

The boy’s entire demeanor shifted from sadness to excitement so quickly that Laura’s wolf unsettled. “Do I get to have werewolf lessons too? Do I need to bring a notebook and take notes? Will there be tests? Can we call them pup quizzes? You know, to play on the whole werewolf pup thing. And I know puns are the lowest form of humor or whatever, but I think they’re underrated. A good pun can make people smile and laugh. Not that any of you smiled or laughed when I made my pun. Do you guys find me annoying? Oh god, shutting up now.” Laura stared at Stiles, her eyes wide, and Stiles looked back at her. “Sorry. I had a lot of Adderall today. I was up all night research lycanthropy on the internet, but there is surprisingly a lot more porn than there is anything that even looks remotely helpful.”

“Yes,” Laura said. “You can come to werewolf lessons whenever you’d like.”

“Awesome.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My goal had been to update this story twice a week, but last week messed me up. Hopefully, this week I'll be able to get back on schedule.

The contractor and his crew came at seven the morning after the full moon. Laura was covered in dirt and her hair was ratty, but she looked the old man in the eye and told them to go ahead with demolition and reconstruction. She knew he thought she was crazy, or maybe she was actually considered eccentric. That was the word used to describe pretty, white rich people with weird habits, right?

Derek wasn’t there.

He left as soon as the effects of the moon waned, leaving both new betas manageable, though they were both hungry and cranky. Scott had climbed into the front seat of Lydia’s car with only a half-hearted “later” as his goodbye. Lydia, however, smiled shyly and said that she would come by tomorrow. Laura had been unable to keep her eyes away from Lydia’s bite. Though she knew that nothing had really changed, Laura couldn’t help the thrill that ran through her when she realized that Lydia was hers—her beta, her pack mate, hers.

It must have been the alpha in Laura.

After meeting with the contractor, Laura went back to the rent-by-the-week apartment building where she and Derek were staying. Derek was just getting out of the shower when Laura got in. She went straight to the bathroom and turned the water to scalding. While waiting for the water to heat back up, Laura pulled leaves from her hair. Yeah, the contractor definitely thought she was nuts.

Laura let the hot water soothe her aching muscles. It had been a long time since she’d gotten to go on a full run. In New York, they’d lived in the city, and while she and Derek had both learned to control their shifts, they still felt the urge to shift tingling at their skin and tugging at their bones.

The wolf craved the moon.

Once, Laura had gotten permission with one of the northern New York packs, so that she and Derek could run on their land during the full moon, but that had only happened once since their move. Running with Derek and Lydia and Scott, though, running on Hale territory, was incredible. Her wolf felt alive and alert in a way it hadn’t been since the fire.

And it wasn’t just because Lydia had submitted and Laura had bit her.

A born wolf had a few different bites. A born alpha had even more.

Laura, as alpha, could turn a human into a wolf, claim an omega as pack, use a claiming bite, or form a bond with her mate.

She shut off the water, like she shut off the thoughts of claiming a mate, and wrapped a towel around her torso. The view in the mirror looked infinitely better than before—the dark bags under her eyes weren’t quite as stark as before and the dirt and grime had been washed down the drain. She ran a brush through her hair a few times, just enough to know if there were any more leaves hiding there, and left the bathroom to flop down on her bed. Laura didn’t envy her young pack mates who had to go to school; she vividly remembered just what it had been like on the mornings after the full moon when she had been forced to listen to Mr. Harris’s monotone voice explaining covalent bonds. She snuggled under the covers and fell promptly to sleep.

**

When Laura drove back over to the house for training, she couldn't tear her eyes away from her childhood home, the only home she'd ever truly had. The apartment in Brooklyn had been nice, had helped her move on when Laura had wanted to stay stagnant. Still, the apartment was nothing compared to the Hale House.  
  
The Hale House was beautiful, more beautiful than any of the houses of her friends growing up. It was bright and open and big enough for a pack. Laura had grown up surrounded by pack, and while sometimes she had craved privacy, especially when she had started shifting and going through puberty--there was nothing worse for a fourteen-year-old girl than getting PMS on the night of her first full moon shift, and Laura would shred anyone who argued that fact. But even that she hadn't had to go through alone. She'd had her mom and her aunts and her grandma.  
  
Laura had never been lonely, never really understood what loneliness was.  
  
Her home, the home that had been so full of love, so full of safety, was gutted. And Laura had never felt so lonely. Even with her brother at her side. Even with the alpha-pack bond with Lydia pulsing in the back of her mind. Laura slung her arm over Derek's shoulders, and he let himself be pulled in.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
Laura looked over at him in confusion. "Why are you sorry?" But he refused to look up, his shoulders slumped and his neck turned in submission. "Derek, why are you sorry?"  
  
He shook his head.  
  
Laura turned him around in her arms like she had when they were young. And like this he looked so very young. "You're scaring me." The scent of guilt and fear was so overwhelming that her wolf whined with the need to protect her brother, her pack mate, but she didn't know how to help. He hadn't been this bad since immediately after the fire.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"Tell me," Laura said. Still, he refused to elaborate. "Tell me." She used her alpha voice and tilted his chin up.   
  
"It's my fault."  
  
She shook her head. He'd said this before, but Laura couldn't believe that, no matter how evenly his heart beat when he said it. It was Kate. It had to have been Kate. She had been a substitute teacher at the high school and had found out they were werewolves. She was an Argent and she unhinged.  
  
It wasn't Derek's fault. No matter how much he believed that.  
  
"It's not."  
  
"It is."  
  
Laura pulled him close, and he buried his face against her neck, no doubt needing the comforting scent of alpha. She whispered, "It's not. But even if it was, it wouldn't change anything. You are still my brother. And you are still pack." Derek whined low in his throat, so Laura kissed the top of his head. "We're a proper pack again--you and me and Lydia. And Scott and Stiles."  
  
Derek pulled back, regaining some of his composure. "Scott isn't a guarantee. And Stiles will follow Scott."  
  
"We need Scott."  
  
Derek looked at her skeptically. "I don't know that we _need_ him."  
  
"He's our brother. We need him to not get the attention of hunters. We need him to be able to function around humans. We need him to control his shifts. Any value to the pack can be determined at a later date."  
  
"Value? You mean like Lydia knowing Latin?" Derek asked in the same voice he used when asking about Laura's girlfriends' potential worth. "Are you jealous that you weren't the one to turn her?"  
  
Laura shrugged. "I got to bite her. That's enough."  
  
"Until your wolf decides you need to claim a mate."  
  
Laura glared. He wasn't getting into this with him. "She has a boyfriend and--"  
  
Derek cut her off. "And she is clearly smart enough to know that being the mate of an alpha will give her more power than being the girlfriend of the captain of the lacrosse team."  
  
"And I'm not going to interfere with that relationship. If she's happy, then we're happy."

He shook his head. “If the alpha is happy, then the pack is happy.”

“And if the pack is happy, then the alpha is happy,” she countered, huffing. She was not getting into this with Derek. “Let it go.”

“Think about it.”

Her eyes narrowed and Derek backed off, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m going to the grocery store. Do you want to go with me?”

“I’m going for a run.”

“Fine. See you back at the apartment. I’m making lasagna.”

**

Despite her attempts to decidedly not think about it, Laura couldn’t help but think about it, to think about Lydia, to think about claiming her, to think about having Lydia by her side as mate. It wouldn’t be such a problem if Lydia wasn’t exactly Laura’s type. It was as if someone had asked her to list qualities of a potential mate and then created exactly that person—down to hair color and height—and dropped her in Laura’s lap, figuratively. Laura didn’t trust herself to consider what would actually happen if Lydia was in her lap.

So, of course, all of this _not thinking about it_ , led to Laura being a little distracted, which is why she didn’t recognize Argent’s scent until she ran her shopping cart into his. “Sorry.”

Chris smiled. “It’s okay. Happens to everyone.”

A cute little brunette came up beside the cart and dropped in a few containers of strawberry-banana yogurt. She smelled like Scott. And Lydia. And vaguely of Stiles. Chris sent off waves of discomfort, and Laura realized that she was staring openly at the girl. “Allison, why don’t you go pick out some ice cream.”

Allison. _Allison._ That Allison? The one Scott wanted to go to a full moon party with? Argent would have put a bullet through his neck if he had done anything to her. Fuck.

“Allison?” Laura kept her voice steady. “Do you know Lydia Martin?”

The girl looked suspicious but nodded and smiled. “She’s a friend. How do you know her?”

Laura smiled back. “She’s a friend of mine as well. She’s mentioned you once or twice.”

“How do you know my dad?” Allison asked, her eyes narrowing. Chris floundered before saying something about being business acquaintances, which didn’t make Allison look any less suspicious. “You’re in the weapons business?”

Laura nodded. “Yes, but I prefer to think about it as the protection business. You know, keeping the innocents safe from those who would harm them.”

Chris frowned. “As long as you aren’t putting more innocents in harm by your version of protecting them.”

“I’m taking care of the ones I have, the ones already in danger. It is not my plan to weaponize any more teenagers, but even if it was, it has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me.”

Allison’s confused voice cut into the stare-down Laura was having with Chris. “Dad?”

Laura turned to look at Allison and smiled brightly. “Sorry about that. Sometimes we have disagreements on how to lead. It can get intense. I think it’s time for me to go. See you around, Allison. Chris.”

She was halfway back to the apartment before Laura realized that she let it slip that Lydia wasn’t the only wolf she was protecting. But she had also learned that Allison knew nothing about what her family really did for a living. Her new betas needed control, and they needed it soon, especially if there was a baby hunter/spy telling her family all about Laura’s new pack members. Chris already knew about Lydia, and he hadn’t seemed surprised that Allison and Lydia were friends. Maybe he had even encouraged their friendship.

Laura couldn’t imagine Chris being quite so open to Allison dating a werewolf.

She began making a mental list of ways she could get Scott to join the pack and train so that he didn't accidentally hurt Allison and end up with a wolfsbane laced arrowhead in his heart. The only one she could think of that had any chance of working was to get Stiles on her side. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for this fandom, and also the first story I've posted on AO3, so I'm a little nervous. Not beta read. Any mistakes are horribly humiliating and my own.


End file.
